Staying Inspired and Empowered in STEM : Dr. Antentor O. Hinton Jr.

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Antentor Hinton Jr. Per his biosketch on his lab website, he is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center and the Ernest E. Just Early Career Investigator.

Dr. Hinton’s laboratory has a strong commitment to diversity. Dr. Hinton has published 8 STEM education papers and 32 diversity, equity, inclusion, mentoring, and career development commentaries. Dr. Hinton is currently a national leader on matters related to diversity, equity, inclusion and mentoring. Some of Dr Hinton’s publications include Cell,2023 (First DEI cover article),Cell, 2022,Cell, 2020,EMBO, 2020 (a),EMBO2020 (b)Nature Biotechnology,2020,Trends in Cancer,2021,Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2021,Trends in Biochemical Sciences2022,Cell Reports Medicine, 2021 (Shared 2nd Anniversary Cover),Cell Reports Medicine, 2022,Trends in Immunology 2022,Trends in Cell Biology 2022 (a),Trends in Cell Biology(b),Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2022 (First DEI/career development cover article for a scientific journal),Trends in Plant Sciences, 2022 (Second DEI/Career development cover article for a scientific journal,Trends in Parasitology, 2022 (Third DEI/Career development cover article for a scientific journal),Trends in Chemistry, 2023 (Fourth DEI/Career Development cover article for a scientific journal) andTrends in Pharmacological Sciences, 2022 (First mentoring cover article for a scientific journal). These pieces are constructive and heavily use the literature to make recommended suggestions.

Transcription

Transcribed by Gelila Petros (she/her)

AHJ: Hi, everyone. My name is Antonor Othrell Hitton Jr. Most people call me AJ. So I’m an assistant professor in the department of electrophysiology and biophysics. My laboratory studies how the investment- we actually use 2 techniques. I should tell you about the techniques first. So we’re a technique-driven lab where we study mitochondrial structural changes and mitochondria-ER communication in diseased and healthy tissues. But our key thing is developing methodologies around electron microscopy. So what we do is we utilize serial block facing which is SBF-SEM and FIB-SIM (focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope)specifically to investigate the molecular mechanisms that regulate molecule transfer and morphology changes between the mitochondria and the ER, and how these mechanisms are altered during cardiovascular disease, neuronal diseases, and also diabetes and obesity.

JP: Awesome.

AHJ: So those are the kind of general things about my lab. Most people know that in my laboratory, we not only do the science, but we also focus on areas of career development and mentorship. So those things I find very important, just as important as we do the research. So then, as far as my scientific journey, there has been a lot of things that have happened in my scientific journey, but I guess some of the key things are, I guess I’ll start from the bottom and then work my way back up to where I’m at.

JP: Sounds good.

AHJ: So when I was an undergrad, I was a biology major and a minor in chemistry, and I was at Winston Salem State, which is a historically, black college and university. So I was able to earn my bachelors degree in 2010. And then during that time, I did play tennis so I was decent. I played and started my freshman year some and then also my senior year, I started the whole time. My junior and sophomore year, [I] wasn’t so lucky to always start, but I had a strong passion for tennis, still would play, but not as often. I played doubles, mostly. Senior year is when I got to really kind of do singles and doubles. And then basically, I was all academic for every year for the MEAC, which is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Now, Winston-Salem’s in the CIAA and they no longer have men’s tennis.

JP: Oh wow.

AHJ: So it’s totally different. It’s a division 2 school now. But before, when I played, it was division one double a. So I do have memories of playing like Old Dominion, Michigan, things like that. So it was very interesting. The level of tennis sometimes is off the charts, to say the least, right? And then, when I was at Winston-Salem State, I not only enjoyed tennis, but I enjoyed research and one of the things that I did was I was a MARC-U Star scholar. The MARC-U Star Scholar[ship] is a program that’s funded by the NIH to be able to fund minorities, to be able to have an enriching experience in research so that they can work during the semester to gain additional research. And then it also helps to navigate the journey of finding summer research so that you can be able to visit other schools and get externships if you will instead of internships if you’re leaving the institution. I also was a part of the STEM scholars program, which was my freshman and sophomore year. And the reason that’s important is because it’s similar to the Meyerhoff program. It was based off of it. It’s no longer in existence because the State was funding that through Winston-Salem State, but it was a really good opportunity to be able to kind of understand what it’s like to have excellence. And I also was a member of the Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society and several other societies when I was at Winston Salem. So I graduated, and then I went to a post-bacc program at Baylor College of Medicine. The post-bacc program was funded by the NIH, so was the NIH PREP program, so I really enjoyed it. It was absolutely amazing, and I loved it so much that I decided to stay at Baylor, even though I had other offers to be able to go to other Ph.D. programs. So I stayed at Baylor. I worked in the Children Nutrition Research Center, which is a center that’s adjacent to Baylor as far as the landscape of the Texas Texas Medical Center, but still a part of it, and I worked in Dr. Yong Xu’s lab. At the time, he was an assistant professor, but now he’s a full professor. And he’s done really well for himself. Yeah, I think he has like 5 or 6 main R01s, and then 2 or 3 Co-R01. One. So he’s done really well for himself. So he’s definitely

22 00:04:54.760 –> 00:05:13.280 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: one of my role models. And so during that time II was President Imsd, and Vice President of African American Science. Imsd is just so. Everybody’s knows initiative to maximize the student development. Back in the day. I think we use the point of this diversity, but not that, you know anymore per se

23 00:05:13.280 –> 00:05:30.359 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and I was fortunate enough to do decently well. When I was a grad student I had 15 co-author pay applications and various good journals like cell reports, Jci, things like that. And my Phd, Uhhuh.

24 00:05:30.450 –> 00:05:56.430 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then I had 2 first authors. One was higher impact. One was not so high impact, but it was still important. So I had one in Hypertension, which is a good journal for the Hypertension field. And then I had another one that wasn’t plus one cause that story just didn’t pan out as strongly and then from there I also had a co- mentor who, Dr. Yongsu thought would be really nice to have more of a singer person, so his name was Laurence Chan or Larry Chan, as we called him.

25 00:05:56.460 –> 00:05:59.590 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and during the time I was a

26 00:05:59.730 –> 00:06:09.489 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’m graduate student. My main thesis was on discovering how nuclear receptors, such as like estrogen receptor, alpha and coactivator steroid coactivator, one.

27 00:06:10.010 –> 00:06:36.150 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: how it played a role, how these particular transcription factors played a role, an extra hypothalamus sites. So that means like the amygdala, for example. And I focused specifically on the medal amygdala. And I looked at how important these extra hypothalamus sites were for regulating blood pressure, and we specifically looked at stress-induced hypertension and blood pressure maintenance and aortic stiffness, and I cared mostly about sex defendant differences.

28 00:06:36.150 –> 00:06:43.699 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So a lot of the work we did look at male and females, but we mostly focused on females. So, which was really really fun.

29 00:06:44.090 –> 00:07:03.210 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then other things that I had kind of published were around ion channel changes and food food intake and energy, homeostasis and binge, eating and then we also looked at neurotransmitters as well, and how those chemical compounds affected energy homeostasis, too. And then I think I had

30 00:07:03.670 –> 00:07:12.020 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like 20 something career development, travel, research or presentation posters and graphic awards when I was there

31 00:07:12.100 –> 00:07:23.990 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and then I matriculated to my postdoc, which was freaking amazing, like one of these post docs. That is where you kind of can create what you want.

32 00:07:24.000 –> 00:07:47.799 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: It was like, it was amazing opportunity. So I was at the University of Iowa. I didn’t think I was gonna like Iowa, cause I was like, oh, it’s Iowa. People don’t go there. That’s what everybody’s like. Are you gonna be safe in Iowa, right? And so my mentor Dr. Edmundale able. Are we calling? Assured me that everything was. Gonna be fine.

33 00:07:47.800 –> 00:07:58.389 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: The Iowa was a lovely place. It’s cold, but it was a lovely place to do science, and he’s correct. Even our diabetes center like fun. Fact at Vanderbilt is based off of Iowa’s Diabetes Center.

34 00:07:58.390 –> 00:08:23.890 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Vanderbilt, you know, diabetes center people that are. You know, we’re over now for that Vanderbilt is known for. And so it’s kinda one of things, many things. But it’s really funny, because it’s like, well, might as well go to the place that got, you know, the good training, right? So that’s where I went. And they all opened my eyes. He asked me, what did I want to do, and I told him I said, I wanna do everything

35 00:08:23.890 –> 00:08:38.439 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I told. I told him I said I wanted to be a researcher. I wanted to be a teacher, a mentor. I wanted to advise people on career development. I wanted to recruit. And I basically wanted Iraq to stop Postdoc, and he laughed and he said, Let’s make it happen.

36 00:08:38.530 –> 00:08:41.450 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And so that’s what we did.

37 00:08:41.570 –> 00:08:43.300 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then also.

38 00:08:43.610 –> 00:08:57.229 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’ll probably tell that part later. But basically, also let me work in the Diversity office as well. So I was able to work up under the tutorial issue, Dr. Denise Martinez. So we focus mostly on create development for graduate students.

39 00:08:57.250 –> 00:09:01.370 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and I helped to mentor students in the postmap program.

40 00:09:01.870 –> 00:09:30.949 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and they gave me a position they meaning Dr. Martinez and Dr. Abel to become the Academic and Career Development instructor while I was a postdoc. So I was a faculty member and a postdoc at the same time. So a lot of fun. And during that time in the Diversity Office I had created the 100 inspiring black scientist list, the 100 more black, inspiring scientists lists, and with the community’s callers and collaboration. I did the 1,000 black scientist lists and the addendum, so that people would know that there could always be more people.

41 00:09:30.990 –> 00:09:59.479 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And so from that I got recognized and Forbes so as one of the 100 black culture makers and thought leaders, I think I was doing something when I saw kids the I was like, Oh, God! I think I’ve been the same like one of her many things. So I felt like for that year in 2020. Okay, so during that time, you know, that was just a diversity. Right? I did a lot of mentoring a lot of my students did extremely well.

42 00:09:59.480 –> 00:10:23.489 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: A lot of them won. You know, best graduate student at Iowa, which in turn allowed me to win a lot of awards for my mentorship, and I would have not been able to cultivate my mentorship if it wasn’t for Dr. Abel Shaw. Me the ropes. You know. I thought I was always caring and helping students, which is great. But then the thing was that like, you know, what are the intricate details of how to do that? Right?

43 00:10:23.560 –> 00:10:52.370 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So that’s what he helped me to do. And so from that I was able to win the Iowa centers for undergraduate, distinguished mentor and award, I was able to win the center for diversity enrichment, distinguished educator award. I won the diversity Catos award. And then I won the inaugural di leadership award, and then another mentoring award through Lsam. So it was really really phenomenal, and during that time I was able to use my research and leverage it to be able to get

44 00:10:52.780 –> 00:11:05.319 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I think it was 3 career development grants at the time. So I was very, very proud of that and I was able to actually develop my research program at Iowa and then translate it over into

45 00:11:05.510 –> 00:11:09.879 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Vanderbilt. And a smooth transition which is written really extremely helpful.

46 00:11:10.290 –> 00:11:13.439 JP Flores (he/him): While I was in Dale’s lab, which is the last point

47 00:11:13.600 –> 00:11:22.589 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I was able to secure multiple wars, Liberals Welcome Fund Ford Foundation, which is no longer the fellowship is no longer existing.

48 00:11:22.670 –> 00:11:37.170 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then the E just postgraduate life science and I was able to win a supplement to that award, too. So I could get a post-doc and basically, while I was in Dale’s lab for research under the Coventry ship for him and Dr. Hannah Perera.

49 00:11:37.270 –> 00:12:02.510 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I was able to elucidate mechanisms by which insulin signaling regulates optic atrophy. One or opal one and skeletal muscle. And so I made an exciting observation around Opal one regulating merck changes, which is mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum contact sites. And this is what got me interested in Merck’s. And so it’s something that, like, you know, we’re still studying today and perfecting multiple other ways to visualize.

50 00:12:02.540 –> 00:12:05.340 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So yeah, so that’s kind of a little bit about me.

51 00:12:05.870 –> 00:12:26.819 JP Flores (he/him): man, that’s so much, and I have so many questions that’s wild with such a such an illustrious career so far, and I, and I think it’s really impressive. But I did wanna ask. So where did you grow up? Where are you from? North Carolina? You from Texas, North Carolina. So my mom’s from Ashville, North Carolina, and my dad’s from Burlington, North Carolina. So Burlington is very rough

52 00:12:26.850 –> 00:12:34.229 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Albanese County, and then Ashville’s in Balcombe County. So clashes of

53 00:12:34.280 –> 00:12:37.270 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like regional differences, if you will.

54 00:12:37.330 –> 00:12:40.180 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: It’s very interesting. Yeah.

55 00:12:40.610 –> 00:12:57.689 JP Flores (he/him): yeah, hey? I only asked that because I moved to North Carolina from La. And this humidity man. I don’t know how you were able to deal with both spectrums. The humidity in the heat in Carolina and the cold in Iowa. I think that’s that’s awesome that you’re able to do that.

56 00:12:57.800 –> 00:12:59.830 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. So

57 00:12:59.890 –> 00:13:16.870 JP Flores (he/him): yeah. Yeah. So so you mentioned that. How you, you know, learned how to be a mentor at Iowa, can you? Can you kind of tell the listeners about different techniques that you used to be a good mentor, I would imagine there’s a lot of empathy and compassion involved. But I’m I’m always curious about actionable, tangible things to be a good mentor.

58 00:13:17.200 –> 00:13:26.359 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yeah. So there’s a lot of different things that you can learn. But one of the things that like now is available is the summer course out of it. First it was, and nmrn

59 00:13:26.430 –> 00:13:41.839 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: so that’s one way. If you not too sure about how to develop. You know a skill set, you could do similar training. Envo has courses on leadership and other things like that. And there’s also the Hmi book on like like

60 00:13:42.120 –> 00:13:50.460 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: understanding how to have a faculty, position and mentor. And there’s other books like that are out there. So that’s something that you know, that has helped me to be able to

61 00:13:50.560 –> 00:14:10.260 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: excel and then life experiences having a triad mentorship where it’s Dale was mentor me and helping me mentor a student. So then that way, I could be able to learn and adjust when you know I recognize this and don’t recognize that. And so we would talk about all those things, about how to help the students.

62 00:14:10.260 –> 00:14:27.920 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And so that’s what made the difference. And then, also, having previous mentors, become advisors and sponsors at Winston Salem state that also do the same, and they really care about how the outcomes work in. The students favor the trainees favor and not their own

63 00:14:28.370 –> 00:14:37.189 JP Flores (he/him): right? Yeah. So I was listening to the for the culture podcast which is an awesome podcast definitely check them out. If you’re interested in stem. And I just want you to tell me

64 00:14:37.190 –> 00:15:02.509 JP Flores (he/him): about your mentor at Winston Salem State, because the stories you were telling telling them have you cracking up in my car, man? So like for context, I again. I played baseball accidental, and I was running around campus trying to get to class in between meetings and practices. But this man sounded so ruthless, and it sounded like he must have really seen something in you to like. Always have roasted you like that, you know. He always roasted me.

65 00:15:02.640 –> 00:15:28.250 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: One of the things was that I know I was always good enough. I would try just enough to maintain a 3 5, but I would never try hard enough to really be the top right cause. I was like that was just my personality. And he and it wasn’t because of sports. I could have maintained the 4 but the thing is that like I just I don’t know. I was kind of just like, alright, I’m good enough.

66 00:15:28.290 –> 00:15:52.920 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But he got that understanding of culture of excellence put inside of me. And so that is something that I’m normal, more developing. Now in my own independent lab, we still keep in touch. We talk the papers, and we talk about the papers now, and he, Mentor still mentors me as well, and one other person and he’s retired since then. But yeah, II it’s like.

67 00:15:53.140 –> 00:16:09.420 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I don’t know. Dr. Clark was an amazing, you know, man, and he helped me so very much to be able to like, overcome a lot of things inside of me that I wasn’t sure about how to navigate, you know, being in science as a person of color. So there’s just so many things.

68 00:16:09.970 –> 00:16:37.590 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yeah, so many things that I learned. And I mean, I just wish that you know I could, you know. Wish he could be directly on the journey with me right now, you know I think he does the same for everybody. I wasn’t. He just puts that intentionality into everybody, and that is something that I learned from him and Dale that I want to be able to do for my students, and I try my best to

69 00:16:37.730 –> 00:16:56.890 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: because it’s so important to be able to be there and present in the moment. And that helps so very much because you do feel like, why, me, you know, feel like, okay, I need to perform. I need to do well, right? And so that is a benefit of that.

70 00:16:57.620 –> 00:17:23.370 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. So I know you list your own podcast. stem. T, right, I believe. And and you know, this is another podcast. That I’d love to plug in from my listeners. And you’re known, you know, in my eyes, at least, to be someone who really values mentoring, especially for students from under represented backgrounds. Right? Can you give me the T on what it’s like from a pi standpoint like, does this mean you intentionally try and keep your lab small like, what’s the overall mentoring approach? Because I’m sure it’s not just the handbooks you just listed right? There’s

71 00:17:23.739 –> 00:17:34.839 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: also trial and error. And basically this holistic mentorship. Each individual in my laboratory has their own set of unique experiences and and unique techniques that are used for them.

72 00:17:34.900 –> 00:17:39.870 JP Flores (he/him): I just sent you like a kind of a list of how my lab is and what we do

73 00:17:54.440 –> 00:18:09.109 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: for me. You know, it’s it’s really cool, right, you know, to have a lab, and it’s a great experience. One of the things about our laboratory is that we do have, like 2 staff scientists, 1, 2, 3, 4 post docs now cause 2 of just left.

74 00:18:09.130 –> 00:18:13.979 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then we have one graduate student. That’s my main grad student. And then we have

75 00:18:14.610 –> 00:18:36.679 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: to post back students. But we also have. I have 2 co- mentor students, and then some technicians as well. So what I’m trying to say is that, like it is a labor of love to mentor because, each person is unique. Each person have their own unique experiences. I have individuals that came in thinking that they knew everything.

76 00:18:36.680 –> 00:18:47.400 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and now they’re slowly learning that they need to evolve to other things. But at the time, you know they thought they kind of knew everything. But you learn from

77 00:18:47.930 –> 00:19:06.820 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: You learn from challenges, and then you have to reassess and refocus and recommit. And so that’s one of the strategies that I use. So I tell people, let’s talk about your failure. How do we overcome that? What is the next step? What does it look like when you win. Right? You know. So those are the things that I try to focus on.

78 00:19:06.890 –> 00:19:12.439 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So that we can be in a position to really understand individuals. Hearts. So, yeah.

79 00:19:12.560 –> 00:19:38.109 JP Flores (he/him): yeah. So when you’re in these Co mentor situations, does it kind of like remind you of the triad mentorship that you know Dale showed you at Iowa like, is that how you approach having a shared student, how does that work? So basically, the person that came up with triads? Diaz. This type of terminology is Brenda Montgomery. She’s phenomenal. I strive to be

80 00:19:38.330 –> 00:19:39.929 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: half as good

81 00:19:39.980 –> 00:19:44.870 JP Flores (he/him): you already are, man. III think

82 00:19:44.890 –> 00:20:12.720 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know it’s important to tell the elders, you know the pay. They respected the dues right. But one thing is that how that worked is that Bill thought it was always good to be by example. So if he taught me something that I would be able to teach my student right, and so it goes down into generations. But I do think that it’s also important that you stay active and current by being able to collaborate still with your previous mentor

83 00:20:12.720 –> 00:20:25.239 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: because you get to see things and flaws about who you are, where to change, where to go. Now, with that being said, that’s context. For why, you know, he picked the triad mentorship.

84 00:20:25.240 –> 00:20:44.669 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: You know he did mentor me one on one and a Dyad mentorship, but the trial was important, because then we both got to focus on the student the experience versus the passion and seeing the potential right. And you get to merge that, to really show how to cultivate that. And so that goes around holistic mentorship where each person’s plan is a little bit different.

85 00:20:45.000 –> 00:21:01.189 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yeah, I mean, did you ever butt heads with with them like, I’m curious about that right? Of course. I mean that always were discussions. Always go well. I’ll give you an example. One of the best things that like I’ve never really told anybody. Is that like

86 00:21:01.230 –> 00:21:09.140 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: at the time he didn’t want me to apply for A. K. 99, and he wanted me to apply for career developments with unrestricted funds.

87 00:21:09.210 –> 00:21:26.349 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And at the time I was like, I want A is what I was thinking, I’m like, why do this? Right? So I’m arguing up and down. He’s like, No, let this person have the. You have multiple opportunities and going for some of these more prestigious awards, like the burials. Welcome, Cassie.

88 00:21:26.760 –> 00:21:49.130 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: are preparing an application for a prestigious grant that he knew about cause, you know he knows things, or for, like, you know, the Ford Foundation to get into that network, are preparing to do the United Niger College for the EU just foundation. Was so pivotal, because all of those are unrestricted. And I have luxury to study multiple things

89 00:21:49.130 –> 00:22:13.299 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and be able to do all those different types of reconstruction that I wanna do. There’s no restriction on how I can spend my money, and this helps me to be able to develop more science. And one of the jokes now he and I have is like, well, what number cover you have. So at the end of the month, like, I’ll have another cover and now he’ll be like is that 13 cause? At first I wasn’t keeping count, but Dale’s a type of mentor. He’s that busy.

90 00:22:13.300 –> 00:22:34.209 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: but and he’s now the chair of department of medicine at Ucla, but remembers how many covers I’ve had like those are the type of details right? So there’s always gonna be discussions, or you don’t agree, but it’s how you approach those and then have to get understanding of why that might be important. So once I got clarity and I felt. Okay.

91 00:22:34.210 –> 00:22:47.540 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I trusted him because there’s a you know, a leadership of trust, and it’s been great, because without those unrestricted grants trying to adhere just to some of the and Nih, things have been very difficult.

92 00:22:47.650 –> 00:22:50.009 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, extremely difficult. Yeah.

93 00:22:51.210 –> 00:23:18.989 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: yeah. I mean, it sounds like, you kind of know your way around the system somewhat right? So now that you’re a faculty. Yeah, yeah, maybe I should knock on wood before I ask that question. You’re still you’re still swimming.

94 00:23:18.990 –> 00:23:22.299 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: but there is a lot of labor of love behind that.

95 00:23:22.350 –> 00:23:40.230 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’ll give you an example like, and then I’ll let you ask your question like I’m exhausted right. But that’s because, you know, we put in such good work right? And you know, one thing is that one of the best things I learned about Dale is slowing down.

96 00:23:40.250 –> 00:23:56.349 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: he would say certain things that would make me think and make me uncomfortable in a way that I had to deal with myself and set boundaries with myself. He told me, when I was a faculty member which we recently had. He was like, you have to pick what you really want to do.

97 00:23:56.350 –> 00:24:08.479 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and how you want to balance your life right. And at the time I’m like hitting everything it looks like every week I’m doing this, and then he’s like, Are you sleeping? But are you letting the lab sleep? Are you doing this?

98 00:24:08.480 –> 00:24:28.619 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: You know. What about your mental health? What about your physical health. What about all these other things? What is your emotional health like? Right? So he challenges me in ways that are very unconventional. But the methods for what I do when I’m high risk and high reward, as we say, pays off, because, like, I see that special type of mentorship, and that’s what he has.

99 00:24:28.690 –> 00:24:36.100 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And you know he’s trained others in the lab to be able to do that, too, for me. And so I think that’s been very helpful.

100 00:24:36.120 –> 00:24:47.739 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So I just wanna say that, like, I have somebody very senior in the National Academy of Science and Medicine, like Mentor and me, and he happens to look very similar to me, even though he’s a Jamaican American

101 00:24:47.860 –> 00:24:50.630 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and so that allows for

102 00:24:50.680 –> 00:24:56.579 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: great opportunities to emerge right. And with that you have to rise to the occasion for that.

103 00:24:56.920 –> 00:25:14.529 JP Flores (he/him): Right? So you kind of talked about what constitutes a good mentor. But I mean. I’m sure part of it is. Look, how did you find these these mentors? Right? Cause I think you kind of have to like. It’s like a feeling the vibe check right. How did you? How did you even?

104 00:25:14.560 –> 00:25:29.950 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And it’s ran by the integrate Society. It’s really cool program that’s called feature leaders, advancing endocrinology or feu feature leaders, I think advancing research and endocrinology, and Dale was the head of it. He still is, but he’s transitioning to let other people, you know, do it.

105 00:25:29.950 –> 00:25:57.239 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And one of the things was that at that particular meeting which I’ll be going to and helping out with is that like, you know, we give career development lessons and mentorship lessons, and we also are recruiting these minority students to be able to be invited for post docs. Help them to navigate their their careers. And so out of that, you know, that’s where I met a lot of my post opportunities. I had 9 post opportunities.

106 00:25:57.520 –> 00:26:04.729 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: but I chose Dale’s lab for 5 reasons. One is that he cared about me as a person.

107 00:26:04.790 –> 00:26:19.319 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: 2. He cared about like where my mind was for science, and how it could go to the next level. Number 3. He cared about understanding how to be mentally, physically, emotionally healthy.

108 00:26:19.350 –> 00:26:41.289 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Number 4. There was a signing bonus involved. There was $7 so 7,500 is a lot of money program for moving expenses. And you know, a little signing bonus. You know that that helped out a lot, and Number 5 is that his science was really cool, and he doesn’t care about kind of the costs.

109 00:26:41.290 –> 00:27:02.929 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: It’s the question you’re asking, and then how you use that question to be able to find out new biological information. So that’s you know, phenomenal experience, because there was not this restricted amount of money I had to spend. It was just unlimited, if you will, and it helped me so very much to be able to develop. And so, knowing those aspects.

110 00:27:03.040 –> 00:27:14.439 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: That is why I picked Dale’s lab, and I also interviewed a lot of his individual faculty members, his post back students, his postdocs and grad students in the lab to determine if they were truly happy.

111 00:27:14.480 –> 00:27:17.099 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Now, in the context of

112 00:27:18.280 –> 00:27:29.879 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: everything else, I just want to say that no mentor is always going to be a perfect fit. There are seasons to this, and so, therefore you have to be ready to work in that season of

113 00:27:30.110 –> 00:27:34.599 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: harvest. You have lots of green right? And then we’ll summon drought.

114 00:27:34.640 –> 00:27:41.550 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So you have to be able to realize that you need multiple opportunities to. Really, you know, assert yourself.

115 00:27:41.910 –> 00:27:51.070 JP Flores (he/him): yeah, no, I think that’s really great advice for for listeners, especially those that are getting ready to choose labs in our and or and and for those that are about to enter graduate school, right?

116 00:27:51.400 –> 00:28:04.650 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. So so now that you’re a faculty at a place like, you know, Vanderbilt, and you’re seeing the system in Higher Ed as someone in power. What are things you don’t like about the system? And and how would you rewrite them?

117 00:28:05.450 –> 00:28:09.560 JP Flores (he/him): Oh, there’s so many things right.

118 00:28:09.690 –> 00:28:15.709 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I think this argument on like merit is important to discuss.

119 00:28:15.760 –> 00:28:34.789 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Demure. Sorry.

120 00:28:35.270 –> 00:28:45.880 JP Flores (he/him): No, no, I was just gonna ask you like, what do you think that the different things are so? Oh, I know, I know, because I asked in my offer letters. So I know exactly like what I need to do to get tenure at Vanderbilt.

121 00:28:46.030 –> 00:28:48.309 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. So what are they?

122 00:28:48.530 –> 00:28:59.809 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So yeah, that’s fine. So you need 2. Our grants are our equivalent our ones. So that means you want a renewable source. After 5 years that can be renewed.

123 00:28:59.970 –> 00:29:21.570 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: then the other thing that is interesting to me is that when I’m thinking about this, they ask for 5 to 8, like Jvc, like papers, or E. Eighte Eliife in that range, because basically they feel that societal journals, plus, you know, like, you know, journals like Eli cell reports, you know.

124 00:29:21.820 –> 00:29:30.979 JP Flores (he/him): Let’s just say neuron or something right or good reputable journals right as well, but they realize that some society journals may have a little bit of a lower impact.

125 00:29:31.010 –> 00:29:40.220 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: but they are very profound because they are reviewed more about the society. And you’re buying into that society. Also.

126 00:29:41.300 –> 00:29:47.099 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you have to graduate one student roughly, that’s and mentor one student or teaching counts towards that.

127 00:29:47.200 –> 00:30:06.139 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: You have service and outreach so service, you know, for me looks very different cause I do a lot outside, so I don’t really do service here. I do do service when requested upon from a dean or a Diversity Dean, or mentoring Dean to do something. Then I do it. Yeah.

128 00:30:06.490 –> 00:30:24.589 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So you would kind of rewrite the the tenure process for faculty. If I had to rewrite the tenure process, I would still do those particular things, but then also make sure that it’s evident that, like when you have someone that is meritus, whether they’re male or female or another type of minority.

129 00:30:24.690 –> 00:30:29.190 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Just being okay with what that is is good enough.

130 00:30:29.430 –> 00:30:30.900 JP Flores (he/him): Gotcha. Yeah.

131 00:30:31.240 –> 00:30:31.970 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah.

132 00:30:32.130 –> 00:30:50.359 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So what didn’t you like about the system when you were a student, and how would you rewrite that

133 00:30:50.690 –> 00:31:11.019 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: the pressure on a pi is really difficult? I watch you on go through so much pressure. He’s killing it now. But at the time he was a assistant professor when he I took me into his lab, so there was a lot of pressure to publish a first author paper published a senior author paper from your lab for somebody else.

134 00:31:11.480 –> 00:31:15.549 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So it was a lot, and it was a lot of trouble.

135 00:31:15.860 –> 00:31:26.950 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: He survived, and he’s doing well. But at the expense of who? Right? It’s just really important to realize that people like Pis or humans, too.

136 00:31:26.950 –> 00:31:45.969 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And there’s humanity there, and not everybody can do everything. And so that is something about like pacing yourself so 10 years not discussed on really how to pace yourself. They just say advantage. But you have, you know, 7 to 9 years really to be able to, you know, kind of get it all together is really 9. But most people go up by 6 and 6, and some change

137 00:31:46.020 –> 00:31:47.730 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: 5 or 6. And strange. So

138 00:31:48.260 –> 00:31:59.509 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: yeah, so it’s just something we have to think about and acknowledge that everyone is not gonna have the same capabilities, no matter after you cook it, or whatever. Some people don’t have the same taste buds.

139 00:31:59.540 –> 00:32:07.850 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So we have to be able to adjust to everyone right? And that is something that is not discussed more of. Now

140 00:32:07.940 –> 00:32:08.950 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: now.

141 00:32:09.210 –> 00:32:11.949 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: in the context of

142 00:32:13.180 –> 00:32:21.430 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: understanding the same question of what I would change for faculty. It would be the burden of

143 00:32:21.700 –> 00:32:22.540 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like

144 00:32:23.220 –> 00:32:35.209 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: understanding the prestige of certain grants over others. Right? So that would be important is understanding what is considered a good r equivalent. Grant versus what’s what, which is right? And so

145 00:32:36.770 –> 00:32:40.710 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: we need to, you know, be able to take care of that as a whole.

146 00:32:40.750 –> 00:32:48.939 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And and we have to do it in in a way that’s a village, you know situation, I guess you would say will be the best way.

147 00:32:49.340 –> 00:33:13.410 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: right? So did you. What didn’t you expect? Transitioning into this new role? I’m sure basically got things you listed right, like I was kind of more speaking in general. They all prepared me the last year and a half, Dale said. We’re not putting out your papers. We’re gonna make it seem as if you have to come up with papers that are for your lab.

148 00:33:13.420 –> 00:33:26.600 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and you need to pick out collaborators. You need to pick out a budget. You need to start thinking about your budgeting. You need to figure out what happens. If you spend too much. You need to think about your grants. All of these different things were so phenomenal

149 00:33:26.620 –> 00:33:52.559 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: that I was so shocked that he had me prepared for them. I was angry sometimes. I was like, you know, my last nurse asked me to do, or asking me to go to Mayo Clinic to learn this technique but it turned out great because I got a visiting post that Mayo clinic. And then I also got to do medical imaging, which heightened my research right? I knew how to do em, which is the team.

150 00:33:52.560 –> 00:34:12.089 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But then he was like, well, we need to go to the next level him into my prospect corps invited somebody to the cereal block facing Dr. Jeffrey Salisbury, and then I worked with him to pick up my skill set, and it made me much more of a lucrative hire, because I had a skill set that hardly anybody else has in the country, and I actually can talk about it

151 00:34:12.090 –> 00:34:24.430 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: right. And I can do that. And I’m writing papers on it and we’re picking up, you know these things and developing workflows for people. So that is what is wild at the time.

152 00:34:24.469 –> 00:34:36.849 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: That is what I was not prepared for for Dale to like. Like, you gotta do this. You gotta do that. You gotta stick with it right? The grind of certain levels of expectation. So for me, I used to go home

153 00:34:36.850 –> 00:34:58.120 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: crying frustrated. I imagine my tennis racket was was, you know, like my fist, you know, you know, like, you know, I went through it all. I don’t think that is like perfect right. And I know Dale got frustrated by me. We’re at a place where he’s like, okay, you frustrate me, you know, like, let’s see, it’s more like

154 00:34:58.120 –> 00:35:17.400 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: thoroughly right like I had to make a decision on something recently whether I was going to stay at Vanderbilt, or if I was going to go to another place because I was presented with some opportunities, and they’ll help me work with that through. And again, like he’s there. It’s such pivotal

155 00:35:17.420 –> 00:35:23.789 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: decision-making points, and he really helped me to do those things, and I don’t share that lightly, because, like

156 00:35:23.990 –> 00:35:26.280 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: it could have been career altering

157 00:35:26.350 –> 00:35:40.930 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: in a lot of ways. I got a lot of people’s advice, but at the end of day it was just me, God, my family! And Dale, deciding on this thing right, and then waiting for God’s confirmation. If you believe that type of thing so you know. So it’s just, you know.

158 00:35:42.230 –> 00:35:54.840 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: it’s so important to really understand who we are at the core and understand our flaws, and Dale always allows me to grow into a space he’s never

159 00:35:55.420 –> 00:36:13.089 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: forcing me to like, you know, be mentored in a certain way. We discuss things and we develop a plan of action through our Idp plan, and we modify it. And we modify that mentor and contract that agreement that we have and it allows for me to be able to navigate and do different things.

160 00:36:13.190 –> 00:36:21.249 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then I can collaborate with other people. So I’m still learning from him. And that’s why I say I don’t have a formula for anything.

161 00:36:21.270 –> 00:36:48.359 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: because I’m still learning right? And then I’m also learning from his network. Because once you’re a part of being a post doc in this lab, you have this huge network. And I have, like older brothers and sisters like Hanana Adam Wendy, that are doing really well. They’re not really my brothers and sister, but they are like a lab family, right? And you know I can learn from them. And it’s it’s been phenomenal, right? And then I also had, like the wisdom

162 00:36:48.360 –> 00:37:10.330 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: of understanding, like money management, credit all these other things that Dale talked to me about. I learned a lot of that from a faculty member’s lab, Dr. Rhonda Souvenir, because, you know. So everybody in the lab contributed to what you see now. But I’m still evolving, and I’m still learning from Dale on how to get better at at the process.

163 00:37:11.520 –> 00:37:33.120 JP Flores (he/him): Yes, so speaking about, you know, mentoring others. So I just had Doctors Daniel Gonzales and Ubadas of Bog on the show, and you as you may or may not know. Daniel, starting his position at at Vanderbilt, I’m sure you know, is so. Are you all starting like a 2 headed Dragon over there, or what like it seems like.

164 00:37:33.120 –> 00:37:41.570 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But you know it was, it was good. I’m very happy that he’s here because one. He’s in the engineering department.

165 00:37:41.570 –> 00:37:53.430 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: so it’s salary secure. And then also he’ll have that good startup to be able to do the great science that he was already doing before. But one of the things that’s gonna be unique about Vanderbilt. That’s not at other places, is that?

166 00:37:53.440 –> 00:38:20.279 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yes, we’re number 5 in medical research. But we kinda are like that family, like, I just got off the phone with one of the new faculty members that just started. And she was like worried about this and worried about that. I’m like, Okay, this is here, this here, this is a list that we pass around. So you know how to do this like it’s it’s so collegial. And even if someone doesn’t like you cause I’ll tell you some people the wrong way here, they still help you.

167 00:38:20.280 –> 00:38:41.709 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Okay, I might say something choice today and tomorrow still help me. Right? So. And that is what I like up most about Vanderbilt is that they can deal my little craziness, you know. So you know, and they can deal with you know me doing so many different things right? So that’s what I want you to realize is that, like

168 00:38:41.740 –> 00:39:07.549 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: he has everything he needs in his department, and he can reach out to any of us at any time, and you know, and Daniels closer to my husband than me. So Edgar is also Hispanic, and and he’s he’s Mexican, and so you know, they talk a little bit more than I do about like if it’s and patch clamping, and you know things right. But I’m pretty sure we’ll hang out if that’s what you’re asking him. But if he needs support

169 00:39:07.550 –> 00:39:36.120 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: he’s got it. But I think he’s got it. Figure it out, too, to my Hannah Grace. I’m pretty sure he’s targeting the freedmen, the Cci, when they do another round, and all the other great grants like, you know. So he’s got it. And we have this model plan that all of us junior faculty go through. So Dr. Alyssa hasty, who’s on the vu side? That’s being a faculty affairs. She has this mentoring program that’s put together, and the mentoring program is freaking sick

170 00:39:36.120 –> 00:39:50.989 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like, whether you like it or not, cause I’ll be honest. At first I was like Oh, my God! But then I was like cause in my mind. I was like I already know how to mentor right. But then, when I she got me to take a step back, I learned so much right

171 00:39:50.990 –> 00:40:08.889 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: so oftentimes again, like Vanderbilt, helps you to humble yourself, but not in a way that they that you lose your dignity. But then they built you up to go further than where you were right, and I even get time to stay with my chair and vice chair. My vice chair takes me out to eat like we just recently did that

172 00:40:08.940 –> 00:40:33.169 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and it was a soft food restaurant. I was like, you keep getting better and better like he listens right? And so that’s like the things like that are so cool here is that the people that you meet, and the stories that people tell, and the tracks that they’ve gone through to get into the trenches to build themselves up. Is so phenomenal, you know. So yeah, II think that he’ll have everything he needs.

173 00:40:33.170 –> 00:40:43.760 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And Dr. Aaron Calipharia, who’s in charge of the Addiction Center, who he’s a part of as well, and Lisa Montejo, they’ll help him. You know. She’s also a doctor as well.

174 00:40:43.790 –> 00:40:52.150 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: They they they will. They will help him to get where he needs to be. And if he needs my help after getting all the help from other people. Yeah, I’m here for him. And yeah.

175 00:40:52.180 –> 00:41:14.799 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: that’s awesome. Do you see the same collegiality amongst the students? Cause I’m assuming, if you have great mentorship along among the faculty ranks. The students are also benefiting from that. Yeah, I think so to some degree. I think some students are a little naive. There’s they, I think they think that they have to compete with everybody. So one of the things my lab is, we help one another. So in our group, me, we all help.

176 00:41:14.800 –> 00:41:27.890 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: There’s 30 something people in a lab we talk about like how each person can win, how each person is going to win, how it may be at different times, but we support one another. So that’s what we care about. Yeah, awesome.

177 00:41:28.070 –> 00:41:54.390 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yeah. So can you give me your thoughts on the different di commentaries that you’ve published in cell and other journals that you’ve written. So I really wanna write one or contribute to 1 one day. And I’ve always been curious. Is there a way to measure the impact of those like? Whenever something comes out I usually send it to my lab right away, or I’ll send it to my department head. But I feel there should be research on how many people these pieces these pieces are reaching and stuff. So there is, I mean, just like any other citations, you know, you measure those.

178 00:41:54.390 –> 00:41:59.350 JP Flores (he/him): So, for example, like you can measure those to see

179 00:41:59.350 –> 00:42:13.770 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: if people are citing those in the literature. One of the things that I didn’t notice until I was doing that was that there were some people that are signing my stuff that’s from stemmed and higher Ed fields and mentoring specific psychology fields.

180 00:42:13.770 –> 00:42:36.179 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So the cell paper has 68 citations from the pipeline paper that we did. The Mbo has 50 for the mentoring minorities paper. So there’s all different ones. Virtual mentoring from the nature biotech has 42 and intentional mentoring has 40. So from pathogen Z. So there’s there’s there’s a ways to measure it the classical way.

181 00:42:36.180 –> 00:43:02.530 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But then there’s also ways to measure by impact of like when people invite you for talks and things like that like II recently like was sick so I couldn’t go to Mit. But I was going. I’ll reschedule with them. But I was gonna do a research talk. That’s why I’m at home and like my Dashique, as you can see cause I never really dressed like this. I always had like the hat, the bowtie, and the suit. So you get to see like the dress down version of everything that’s going on.

182 00:43:02.530 –> 00:43:13.610 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Basically. Yeah, I mean, it’s tough at times. You know, you do want to be able to, you know, attend everything. But sometimes you know, you have to think about yourself

183 00:43:13.610 –> 00:43:33.040 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: first, but the reason I bring that up is because that’s also me exercising the power of saying No, so I do. I wrote that. So I have to learn to be able to also take the things that I that I’ve written and apply them for myself. So if I can’t apply them for myself. I don’t think that will be effective for anyone else. So that’s the first thing, and how I measure stuff

184 00:43:33.070 –> 00:43:59.870 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: if I’m writing, and I can write from an experience that can help other people grow, not in a way that’s angry, but that’s the way that creates solutions that’s very helpful, and understanding. The style of writing that I need to be addressed in certain avenues of different publications is important as well, because each publication is different, and how they write, and the style, or if it’s a story, or a QA. Or if it’s an interview, that’s, you know, that is recorded. And then someone else is writing.

185 00:43:59.870 –> 00:44:18.860 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: They’re taking quotes. It’s all different types to think about that. And then in the context of impact that other institutions, they asked me for research, but they also asked me for a di or a mentoring presentation. I chose a mentor in presentation for my Science and Society talk, which I will give, which is, I’m recovering.

186 00:44:18.930 –> 00:44:26.399 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But that’s the point that I mean that like that’s how I measure. I have like 190, something talks dude.

187 00:44:26.420 –> 00:44:39.629 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And and you know, I’ve done majority of them since I’ve started. And I’m just getting into my third year. Yeah. So so yeah, so

188 00:44:39.800 –> 00:44:42.249 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: so I started in 2021

189 00:44:42.620 –> 00:44:54.570 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and you know. So I was when I started. I actually started in February as a research assistant professor because I was still finishing my postdoc, and then I hired my first person in April.

190 00:44:54.580 –> 00:44:59.330 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and then what I did was then I started my tinga track in September

191 00:44:59.520 –> 00:45:15.440 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and then 2021. So then it’s been 2 complete years, almost and now I’ll in September I’ll be starting, you know my third year officially at the tenure track level. But if you include all of it, yes, I have had that.

192 00:45:15.460 –> 00:45:19.109 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and, you know, almost completely full 3 years. So yeah.

193 00:45:19.240 –> 00:45:47.460 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: wow! That’s so impressive. That’s why. Well, I asked that question because I’ve been curious. Is is it kind of like actual science papers where you know other Dii champions do they reach out to you? And they’re like, Hey, let’s take these ideas and turn them into action and make it policy. Does that ever? So so that’s happened. So II was fortunate enough to get nominated to go to this roundtable, which I can’t like, tell you what happened at it. But it was on the heel, right like and I was discussing

194 00:45:47.460 –> 00:46:05.920 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: about policy and things like that. And so those things do get turned into action items, and I’m very grateful for the senior elders that are making those things happen. There are so many champions that are really helping, you know. And I wouldn’t be in that that space without them.

195 00:46:06.190 –> 00:46:08.840 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And and I’m very grateful for that.

196 00:46:09.060 –> 00:46:19.220 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: One other thing that I think that’s so important is figuring out how to align yourself with the right people and the timing of certain things that itself can be tremendous.

197 00:46:19.280 –> 00:46:23.819 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then also, knowing that some things some people like

198 00:46:23.900 –> 00:46:41.970 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you to eat, but they don’t want you to tell that you’re eating. If that understands what I mean. There’s a guy that I know. That’s a famous professor that’s Hmi and National Academy of Medicine. He’s always like, here’s an opportunity eat right. And and the reason he says, that is like.

199 00:46:41.970 –> 00:46:59.329 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know, I have many opportunities, but this is something that I think that would benefit your career right? And so there’s times that that happens. Dale has done that. Who I can mention. Other faculty members have done. Matt, who, you know I don’t. That, you know, doesn’t, you know, want to to say anything.

200 00:46:59.420 –> 00:47:04.379 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But the point I’m just trying to make is that, like, you know, there is plenty of opportunity.

201 00:47:04.750 –> 00:47:07.670 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And you just have to kind of seek it out

202 00:47:08.820 –> 00:47:29.109 JP Flores (he/him): alright. So I have 2 questions before I go into a little more some fun questions. So the first question is, I get to interview Freeman Rabowski in a couple of months, and I’m I’m freaking, pumped man. So that’s awesome. I want to pick your brain about this. What would you ask him? Cause? I think I’m gonna start collecting questions and be like, what would you ask Freemanowski? So then the question becomes, how to modify the Meyerhoff model

203 00:47:29.130 –> 00:47:35.040 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: to fit other institutions right? Because you cannot use the same framework

204 00:47:35.040 –> 00:47:59.680 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: at every institution, and it’s successful the model itself is successful. But then you have to adapt the model to each institution. Right? So if you’re like, sometimes like, I have these commentaries. But then I do a stem Ed paper like I did one in eyes science on the project, strengthened framework. Where, if, like, we didn’t have the mark program, how could you make a mark program. But then you have to do interventions right? And those interventions like Cherylin, black Dot

205 00:47:59.680 –> 00:48:16.960 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Cherylin, black at Duke, is a master at right, and so intervention. Strategies that her and veranda come up with are so important because that you can apply that framework to other institutions or departments or colleges. And so that’s something that is not talked about enough.

206 00:48:16.960 –> 00:48:46.609 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and I would challenge him on that, not in a bad way, but just, you know that consulting, you know, to help each school to be able to modify that right. But there’s some times where schools get off track because they want to deviate from it, and there’s nothing wrong with deviating if it’s the framework and the essence of the college to make it work. But in its essence the framework has to stay the same, or the model itself, we have to stay the same. That’d be the first question. The second question is understanding about

207 00:48:47.150 –> 00:49:08.969 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like his legacy. I would ask him like, what is his next move? Because he’s done. You know the Freeman Nebraska scholars. He’s gotten the National Academy of Science Medal for his public service. But then, what’s next for him? Right, you know, and then ask him what he does personally. And you know and ask him what are some of his favorite

208 00:49:09.060 –> 00:49:24.309 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: calls that he’s gotten from some of his trainees, you know, and you know the people that he’s inspired. And what are some of those stories that have been so helpful. That he’s helped in private, but he’s willing to share in public that could help other people to be successful.

209 00:49:24.320 –> 00:49:26.870 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Those are the type of questions that I would ask them. Yeah.

210 00:49:27.090 –> 00:49:48.500 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: those are amazing. It was a really good. I’m definitely gonna incorporate those. And I’ll give you credit and all that. Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about that. The credit is not important. The the message is much more important. Because it was able to reach somebody. That’s that’s that’s the key, right? Where was listening? Who can benefit? That’s what you want, right? Like I do this

211 00:49:48.860 –> 00:50:08.019 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like I do things like this like what we’re doing now is because it’s not about me getting more notoriety. It’s about me being able to help others to be successful right? And to do much better than what I’m doing now. And you know, starting earlier, it succeeding right? That’s the goal.

212 00:50:08.290 –> 00:50:33.929 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. And that’s the goal of the podcast right? Disseminate information, interview people get word out. Exactly. So. Why do you think diversity matters in science giving everything going on in Cambridge over to Harvard. What is the best way to communicate that Di is really important for the scientific enterprise. So a lot of times, individuals and things that

213 00:50:34.340 –> 00:50:53.869 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: are not really as important a lot of times. People focus on things that are not even Dei so they don’t really know what the purpose of it is a lot of people say, well, you know, if you have Di, you lower your standards. There are plenty of us around the country that have merit to Cvs.

214 00:50:53.920 –> 00:51:00.470 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’m going in my third year, and I have 100 publications. All of my lab is funded.

215 00:51:00.570 –> 00:51:09.469 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I. You know I have one our equivalent grant already, and you know I’m now starting to write an but the point I’m trying to make is like

216 00:51:09.760 –> 00:51:22.300 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: There’s people that are so much stronger than I am that are people of color in their Cvs. And there are people that are just as strong as I am, and there’s people that will be even better than everybody that’s already better than me, and so forth.

217 00:51:22.560 –> 00:51:30.339 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: My age, range, and I think sometimes the misconception about merit versus, you know, quality of a scientist

218 00:51:30.360 –> 00:51:46.400 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: or person of color are issues that have to be tackled right away. And I do think that there is a need that we all make sure that we have the most respectable and high quality science as we can.

219 00:51:46.410 –> 00:51:52.450 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and we also have to learn to judge things fairly based upon the standards of when that stuff was implemented.

220 00:51:52.480 –> 00:52:04.710 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then, if it’s now changed, I think we should give people the opportunity to be able to rectify those changes that have may have occurred, so that so that things can be improved.

221 00:52:04.830 –> 00:52:08.079 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then, in the context of

222 00:52:08.100 –> 00:52:34.849 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: what’s going on at the colleges. I have to keep a neutrality clause. Unfortunately, Vanderbilt is neutral and certain things so I’m not speaking in the Vanderbilt capacity. If I was speaking in my own capacity, I would suggest that we have to pull back from the message of these quotes of these words that we’re always bringing up. CRT, di.

223 00:52:34.970 –> 00:52:43.410 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know, justice, you know, accessibility, all these different words, and just focus on what it really is enriching the student.

224 00:52:43.450 –> 00:52:48.659 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: It doesn’t matter about the wording it’s just focused on, how do we make the most

225 00:52:48.860 –> 00:53:14.770 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: important environment? So all students can thrive? And it may not be perfect for each person. But we have different frameworks of the same merit that could be applied to the people’s experiences, and I think if we can get at the essence of something like that, and focus on mentorship and leadership that changes, how we are being perceived, and how A sense of belonging, a sense of merit is still there.

226 00:53:14.950 –> 00:53:19.259 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah. yeah, what kind of legacy are you trying to leave on science?

227 00:53:19.400 –> 00:53:38.570 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’m trying to leave a legacy that you know, mitochondria are cool, you know. These mitochonders. Structural shapes are important for frequency changes, and the frequency of one mitochondrial shape may dictate disease and that.

228 00:53:38.570 –> 00:54:04.260 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you can alter nuclear distribution by shape. So those are some of the ideas. And then being able to develop tools for people that don’t code versus coding to help them in doing their analysis. So that’s what I want to leave at a high level. And then I want my lab to be able to translate that research into applications that are either methodologies that could be used for diagnostics or drug-able targets in the future.

229 00:54:04.330 –> 00:54:26.800 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: For mentoring. I want people to use my frameworks and improve upon them, and be able to help others to be successful. You know. Like, for example, I’m very proud of my one of my students Kit, who just recently got the Marshall fellowship, you know. So I’m very happy. That standard was 30, everyone and then, you know, that’s a good example of why mentorship can be effective.

230 00:54:26.820 –> 00:54:55.840 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: And then I want people to understand that you can be a champion of enrichment. But you don’t have to do it all. You share that process. You build up others, and you sharpen one another and realize that the goal is not to get your voice heard. The goal is to embrace others and create glues so that people can stick through the process and not give up when things are blowing in the wind, they have something rooted and grounded

231 00:54:55.840 –> 00:54:59.550 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: to stick to. So yeah, that’s what the legacy I want to leave.

232 00:54:59.770 –> 00:55:04.089 JP Flores (he/him): Yeah, that’s a mic drop. But let’s end the interview with some fun questions. Yeah.

233 00:55:04.220 –> 00:55:27.629 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: alright. So who are your favorite sports teams? Indoor athletes? So my favorite sports teams. It’s a little kind of confusing. So you’re gonna we’re like, okay. But anyway, so since I’m a little older, not my much, we’ll say that so? Serena Williams has retired. So she’s my my favorite singles, you know, tennis player.

234 00:55:27.630 –> 00:55:44.200 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and Pete Sampras was always my favorite Guy tennis player. Yes, Roger and Novak and Roffer great, but Sampras and Serena, who got me into like the tennis right? And then doubles teams. So that’s my favorite team is Serena.

235 00:55:44.210 –> 00:56:08.000 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and you know. So they were great. Now, other sports. Cause you already know, I like to this, I actually like the Golden State warriors. Yeah, yeah, so it’s not.

236 00:56:08.210 –> 00:56:30.279 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Everything is curry. And then, when Kobe was alive, I love Kobe like I used to rock like the black, and you know, ate, you know. So yeah, that that was really tremendous, because he spoke to a generation in a different way. The brother was so talented. He spoke Italian, English, Spanish, you know, he was gonna start enhancing

237 00:56:30.510 –> 00:56:41.139 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: born and raised man.

238 00:56:41.250 –> 00:56:42.450 JP Flores (he/him): So I know

239 00:56:42.460 –> 00:57:00.470 JP Flores (he/him): you might hate me after this next question. Do you play pickle ball? Do you like pickle ball? Okay, so, dude, I’m watching it on the tennis channel. Sometimes there’s this there’s like, I think there’s this girl that is. I forget her name. She’s like 15.

240 00:57:00.470 –> 00:57:14.760 JP Flores (he/him): She is dominating

241 00:57:14.810 –> 00:57:44.069 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: singles. Mix doubles

242 00:57:44.070 –> 00:58:02.769 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and then Ben Johns is good, too. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So III look at it a little bit. One thing that was hilarious to me about pick a ball is gosh! What’s his name? He hits with an enormous amount of stick. Oh, Jack Sock!

243 00:58:02.770 –> 00:58:15.330 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So Jack started to like, you know, cause he got up to like 8 in the world, and tenants, and he was not too bad. But yeah, he’s like been playing pickle ball. So I was just kind of like, really funny, like, you know.

244 00:58:16.120 –> 00:58:43.180 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you’re you’re one of the only tennis players to actually like, know, pickle ball and actually like, can talk about pickleball. I feel like a lot of tennis players hate talking about pick a ball, I mean, I think I think one thing is that I learned to be amendable to talk about every sport like I even played football in eighth grade. It’s not my cup of tea. I switched full time to tennis and tae kwon do, but like I still could talk about football like, do I watch? My dad loves

245 00:58:43.200 –> 00:58:52.649 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: all of the football games like like we were talking about. Who was gonna Win? Who’s doing this we talked about this we talked about. Why, like

246 00:58:52.650 –> 00:59:18.649 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: the leaving Florida State out was a good situation because they got destroyed. Oh, my God, I was like, really like it was so bad, you know. So II you know II think it’s good, and you know, for the pack 12 we used to be the pack 10, you know. I was excited back in the day when there’s my Matt, and then also, like

247 00:59:19.070 –> 00:59:20.020 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: gosh!

248 00:59:20.360 –> 00:59:46.939 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Also, like they made it exciting the games against Notre Dame, you know that was back in the day. I wish people would stop with all this like we need to vacate wins everybody cheating stuff. That’s why they had to do like, you know, like actual sponsorships. Now, there’s a real thing, right? Like I mean, they they? Because the schools are like, Okay, yeah.

249 00:59:46.940 –> 00:59:51.499 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: we’re gonna help you do this. All right. Bam. I mean, look what Memphis had to go through this hot mess

250 00:59:51.500 –> 01:00:19.400 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like, you know, I mean, just like those are like II just wish they wouldn’t have done that. But alright! What songs are you blasting on a day when all the mentees have expressed their happiness, and on a day where all the experiments are like.

251 01:00:19.910 –> 01:00:25.939 JP Flores (he/him): you can say whatever you want here, I think everybody is gonna

252 01:00:27.850 –> 01:00:48.490 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So I have like, okay, so it depends on the day. So if I’m at home and like, I’m just like it’s me. And I’ve like done something. So I have like this, like 2,000 early nineties. Type of situation, poison and then I go into like prima Nuc, if you buck

253 01:00:48.490 –> 01:01:01.049 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and then like, you know. So there’s all types of things that I’m listening to right. And then like, if I am in need of, like some anxiety, like stillness. I play like hill song

254 01:01:01.050 –> 01:01:13.539 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: like I really love that. So like I’ll do that and I’ll pray in my lab. And then, like just try to like calm down like when like I’m stressed and then, right now, you know.

255 01:01:13.640 –> 01:01:37.220 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I I’m listening to Jack Harlow Vanello. But like, you know, like I’m more like, you know, like a butter pecan caramel situation. But the point is that like I like the song. So that’s why I was. So I was trying to. I was trying to get some context before I just said that.

256 01:01:37.220 –> 01:02:00.139 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: So cause that’s what I was thinking about mine as soon as you had. Oh, my God! Now people are gonna think I have no culture. Other things, too. But like, you know, yeah, I mean dude. I like that song. I think it’s really funny some of the lines that he says. I can’t say his line, but if you remember, on one of his tracks he talks about. He’s the next best thing since Eminem, if you

257 01:02:00.140 –> 01:02:04.729 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know what I’m talking about. So I thought that was a really good line like, I mean, you know.

258 01:02:04.730 –> 01:02:23.170 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: there’s been other, you know, great rappers that are from, you know his particular, you know. Background. But that, or maybe a little bit better than him. But I love his confidence right? I love his swag right, and then I don’t know. I mean, there are other new things that are out. You know.

259 01:02:23.280 –> 01:02:28.910 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know, people that you know, that are on the Sgm side, the sexual gender minority. They’ll be like, well.

260 01:02:29.070 –> 01:02:52.870 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you need to talk about beyonce. So you know, I like beyonce. So I like her last album was really nice. Yeah. So it’s it’s a lot of stuff going on in music. But really, you know, one of the things that like I really like, you know, that everybody’s now starting to get into is like afrobeat sulka, you know. So those are the songs that you know, like I think that are

261 01:02:52.890 –> 01:02:58.370 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know, really, really nice. Ii do think that like

262 01:02:58.770 –> 01:03:00.519 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: we don’t give enough attention.

263 01:03:00.820 –> 01:03:24.650 JP Flores (he/him): To other cultures. Music and things like that, you know, I feel like spotify is doing something where cause this is becoming a more common thing, where all my friends are listening to music from different cultures. And it is beautiful. Spotify is doing that or like what’s interesting. You know, they’re also create. I think if I’m not mistaken, the Grammys are creating a a section for me.

264 01:03:24.650 –> 01:03:45.959 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I’m not 100% sure. But that’s what I kinda heard. But it is true. There’s a lot of different cultural music that everybody’s starting to listen to. I mean, I find myself listening to some music in Brazil, some in Africa, across the continent cause there’s different countries, of course, and also Mexico and other Latin American music. So it just kinda just depends.

265 01:03:45.960 –> 01:04:13.040 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: But I will tell you. I don’t know I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m I don’t know what you’re going to do.

266 01:04:13.040 –> 01:04:26.709 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: I did go to a conference. I finished the conference early, and I hung out with my boys at like actual like a sulk. Caribbean, like Get. It was amazing. 40’clock

267 01:04:26.740 –> 01:04:46.919 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: and got back up and went to the conference. So it was dope. So II do still have some fun. So III guess yeah, I could dance a little bit. But like you know, like II don’t off to do. I am practicing, but shot the meringue. And now so that’s something that I need in my like, like

268 01:04:46.960 –> 01:05:03.910 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: my my level of everything so like, if I go to the peak district with our Zona Rosa with some some moves right? So yeah. So I I’m learning different things. I’m actively, always trying to

269 01:05:04.270 –> 01:05:27.500 JP Flores (he/him): do different things for myself. Yeah, so yeah, awesome. Well, I’m I’m so glad that you’re able to find the time for those types of things, but that’s that’s all the questions I had, and I just want to say it was …

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truly an honor to meet you like I. I’ve always looked up to you and and I just. I’m so glad that you agreed and came upon the opportunity, and I look forward to hearing it, and also, you know congratulations on what you’re doing.

270 01:05:27.510 –> 01:05:29.749 JP Flores (he/him): and then do you plan to do a postdoc?

271 01:05:30.150 –> 01:05:51.890 JP Flores (he/him): I think so. Yeah, so I applied for the Hh. My Gilliam fellowship. And I, you know I just learned about the Freeman Rabowski Fellowship, the post-doc one. So I yeah to Hannah Gray. One. Right. II talked to Chris Barnes. I think Chris Barnes was the first person on this podcast. Maybe the second person was podcasting

272 01:05:51.890 –> 01:06:00.810 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: he’s, not quiet, but he’s quiet thunder in the context that, like, you know, everything he does is so solid. I look up to Chris. Chris is amazing.

273 01:06:00.810 –> 01:06:22.770 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: Yeah, him him and Ney’s a reason why, I’m at Unc. Actually, they showed me they they told me to apply to you and see, yeah, they they definitely yeah. Chris loves alright. Well, cool. Thank you so much again, and I really appreciate your time. And if you ever need my perspective as an outside, you know perspective, please just feel free to reach out. I’d love to help.

274 01:06:22.770 –> 01:06:38.250 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: you know. Writing you know, if you want to get your feet wet in it. There is a special issue going on at journal, self physiology. So it’s, you know, low hanging fruit, before you like. Make yourself press, or your nature or science debut

275 01:06:38.330 –> 01:07:00.890 Antentor Hinton, Jr.: so that’s something that you could do. Journal of self physiology. I really appreciate you later. Have a good.